


Secret Identities and the End of the World

by sqweezybreezy



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, End of the World, F/M, Minor Character Death, Near Death Experiences, One Shot, Pre-Apocalypse, Pre-War, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21538087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sqweezybreezy/pseuds/sqweezybreezy
Summary: An akuma, a missile and the end of the world.Who cares about secret identities, anyways?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 7
Kudos: 44





	Secret Identities and the End of the World

This was it.

Marinette was holding on for dear life and was running out of strength. Her costume had fallen away minutes ago and her adrenaline wasn’t going to keep her hanging on for very much longer.

In the distance was bedlam. It was like The Purge, but worse.

When everyone woke up this morning, they saw a small red speck in the sky. Some theorized it was an akuma, but Tikki assured Marinette that it was nothing of the sort.

It was a missile, and it was barreling its way to Paris.

Then, a real akuma began terrorizing the city. He was feasting on the fear that the citizens felt as they saw the bomb fall towards the city centre.

So, Ladybug and Chat Noir were on the scene. Citizens were turning into ravaging monsters, tearing siding from buildings and flowers from soil. They were scavenging for supplies, maybe? For the end of the world? It was unclear.

What was clear, however, was that Ladybug had other fish to fry. She needed to get a better look at this projectile, and figure out a way to stop it. Because, beating this akuma would help briefly but with impending doom on the mind, there were surely plenty more to come.

So, Ladybug made her way to the second tallest building in the city, the Montparnasse Tower. She scaled the side in seconds, red and black spots adorned. It was then that her costume collapsed, and she was forced to refuel her kwami quickly to finish her reconnaissance job.

She hesitantly peered over the edge of the building, as she was not wearing her costume at this moment and the building towered nearly 60 storeys above street level.

She eyed the citizens on the street below. People were behaving recklessly, as if this truly was the end of the world.

And maybe it was. Sure, cities had survived bombings before but never from that height and not with today’s advanced technology.

She looked up and the missile was closer, probably about 15 minutes from the ground. But they could still stop it! Ladybug could use her Lucky Charm and her high viewpoint to summon a quick fix. A world-saving fix.

But then Marinette leaned a little too far, her grip on the bag of macarons slipping from her grasp and falling 59 storeys to the ground below. Marinette was flipped, hanging onto the railing with her body facing outwards.

Tikki screamed, floating closer to where she hung, but couldn’t do much to help her friend.

She may be an all-powerful Goddess, but she was also only 4 inches in height.

She also didn’t have enough energy to transform her into Ladybug. If she tried now, things could go haywire and Marinette might end up losing her grip on the bars.

Marinette let go with one arm and swung around, facing the building. She attempted to pull herself up but couldn’t do it.

This couldn’t be the end!

There was a literal missile coming to Paris, she couldn’t die from falling off the tower! That would be so embarrassing!

So, when she failed at pulling herself up, and at transforming into Ladybug, she resorted to her final option.

“HELP!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!” She screamed, her voice cracking with the volume. Her face was soaked in tears of panic at this point, she was unsure if she would make it. If she would be able to save Paris.

She continued to scream but thought of the missile. It had been sent from a faraway country, she assumed.

She vaguely remembered seeing people heading for the metro stations, rushing down the stairs to hopeful safety.

So, there was still a chance of survival. But not from where she was.

She squeezed her hands tighter around the steel pole she gripped, dangling over the edge. She could still hear the savage civilians on the streets below and she felt her heart squeeze.

They would die without a chance all because Ladybug wasn’t around to save them.

Her palms were sweaty. Her anxieties weren’t helping her keep calm as she struggled to keep her grip.

“HELP! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?” No. Everybody within hearing distance was victim to the akuma at the moment.

Marinette loosened her grip, relaxing her muscles.

“Marinette, no!” Tikki cried, teary eyed.

Marinette grunted, pulling herself back up to full grip. “It’s okay, Tikki. I was just stretching. Wouldn’t want to get a cramp—” She fell.

Her slippery hands hadn’t accounted for the slippery pole she attempted to grab at. It was soaked with her sweat.

She screamed as she fell, praying that someone or something would catch her. She prayed that Tikki would miraculously find food or refuel using pure passion to save her.

Marinette didn’t even care if she had to transform in front of all these people, identities be damned in such a crisis.

But there was nothing around, no solutions. She was going to liquify as soon as she hit the concrete below.

Suddenly, she heard her name being screamed, “MARINETTE!”

She turned her head and saw Chat Noir.

“Chat!”

Cold relief flooded her body as he sped towards her, meeting her in the middle and wrapping himself around her body like a catcher’s mitt.

He wrapped his arms tightly around Marinette’s waist and buried his face in her neck, breathing heavily. “I’ve got you.” He said. “I’ve got you, you’re safe.”

She knew it was just his hero-side talking, reassuring the civilians that they were OK in times of panic. But the irony was not all gone. She almost couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

Almost.

She wasn’t safe. Neither of them were, especially without her costume.

And suddenly, as if to taunt them, a horrifying sound blared from the sky. It was wobbly, like the Doppler effect had taken hinge on it, but it was there. It sounded low, a deep rumbling that caused everyone (even the akuma-driven citizens) to look up.

The missile was minutes away now, travelling so fast yet so slow. Everyone knew it was doomsday but there was nothing left to do. No one was prepared, and Ladybug was nowhere to be seen.

So, Chat Noir used his magic at the last possible second, pulling Marinette close to him as he disintegrated a nearby sewer grate and jumped inside. Then, he ran, dragging his civilian friend along with him.

His ring beeped out, announcing he had five minutes left, but he didn’t care. He had to get deeper. He had to save Marinette.

Eventually, they heard it. Well, they felt it.

The world felt like it was upside down, the entire sewer system shook, and the water inside tsunamied over the edges, drenching them in greywater. The sewer lights blinked out of existence (why did those exist, anyways?) and they were left in darkness.

But they were alive. It seemed like his last-minute plan of going underground had worked, at least for now, and they had made it.

Marinette grasped for Chat’s bell. It was a comfort thing.

“Ch-Chat?” Marinette tried, snapping him out of his daze.

“Mari!” He replied, pulling her away from him to check her over for injuries, “What were you doing on that tower! You could have died!”

The irony once again didn’t announce itself in his mind, and the situation was too crazy for Marinette to correct him.

Because, technically, they all could have died.

Technically, a lot of people probably did die…

She gulped, “I w-was trying to see what I could do. And then I fell over the side and y-you caught me. Y-You saved me, Chat.”

He blushed, trying to brush it off like it was nothing. He would have saved anyone, that was his whole _thing_. He was a superhero!

But it felt different holding Marinette in his arms, rushing her to safety. It felt… special.

“Of course I did, you were going to fall!” He said, reaching out to touch her cheek, just to make sure she was real.

Marinette reached up to grab his hand, lacing their fingers, “No, I mean, you saved me from that missile. We survived, Kitty.”

Nobody called Chat Noir ‘Kitty’ except for Ladybug, but the pandemonium from minutes before was still coursing through his veins and he barely noticed her slip-up.

His ring beeped its final time and he grimaced. She looked at him in his glowing green eyes and frowned, “Your transformation.”

He swallowed, his mouth dry with anxiety. “What should we do? I’ll run out of night vision.”

Marinette looked around, her eyes scanning the tunnel they were in. There was nothing down here except miles of dirty sewer water and darkness. 

Sullenly, she shrugged, coming up blank for any solutions. Technically, she could procure a blindfold but what good would that do when it was so dark that she could barely see his face four inches from her own?

So, she supposed he’d have to reveal himself to her. Eventually. For now, the light of his detransformation wouldn’t be enough to illuminate him for more than a second and there was no way she’d be able to identify him then.

“I guess secret identities don’t matter during the end of the world?” She joked, brushing her fingers through his damp hair, rubbing the material of his ears between her finger and thumb. His opposite ear flitted and she looked him in the eyes.

"Tell me who you are, Chat Noir."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! had this dream an hour ago and decided to write it out. let me know if you'd like me to continue, and maybe I will!


End file.
